Angola's Opportunity

Published: March 20, 2002

If geology were destiny, Angola, with rich deposits of oil and diamonds and a relatively small population, would be one of Africa's most prosperous countries. Instead, more than a quarter-century of civil war and brazenly corrupt government have left it a ruin. The death in combat last month of the longtime rebel leader Jonas Savimbi opens a possibility of finally ending the fighting, introducing more accountable government and using oil revenues to build a better life for Angola's people.

For that to happen the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or M.P.L.A., will have to change its ways. Washington and the United Nations need to step up the pressure for reforms. So do international oil companies, whose payments keep Angola's government afloat. This year oil revenues of about $3 billion will account for about 90 percent of official government spending.

Mr. Savimbi was a powerfully destructive force. At different times he aligned himself with Beijing, white-ruled South Africa and Washington. He was an opportunist, whose thirst for combat was insatiable and whose word on peace agreements was not to be trusted. His rebel army controlled Angola's diamond-producing areas, and revenues from them financed his war machine.

Mr. Savimbi's behavior reinforced the worst elements of the M.P.L.A., a party that started out as Communist but whose real ideology is self-enrichment. The government refuses to account for its spending of oil revenues. Much is diverted into off-the-books arms purchases and private bank accounts. For years M.P.L.A. leaders have used the endless civil war as an excuse for postponing democracy and development. There are no regularly scheduled presidential elections. One Angolan in three is an internal refugee. On the U.N.'s Human Development Index, which measures basic standards of health and education along with income, Angola places 146th out of 162 countries evaluated. Now that Mr. Savimbi is gone, so too are the government's excuses.

Washington, which has recognized the M.P.L.A. government since 1993, should continue pressing Luanda to privatize state companies and introduce more financial transparency and democracy. The U.N., which saw two negotiated peace agreements collapse in the 1990's, largely because of Mr. Savimbi's intransigence, needs to resume its efforts, building on the cease-fire that government and rebel forces agreed to last week. Oil companies doing business with Angola, including Exxon Mobil and ChevronTexaco, must insist on increased financial accountability and social investment as a condition of developing the new oilfields that are expected to double Angola's output in the next decade. By 2010 Angola could produce more than two million barrels of oil a day, about what Kuwait produces today.

This is Angola's best chance since independence in 1975. It must not be squandered.